gaming Voice Acting in Video Games

[Fghik 360]

TL;DR: "Ugh"

 

I have nothing against Plot-based games. In fact, the games I like best are very storyline based.

 

However, sometimes I feel some games would just be better off without voice actors... For most of the games I have the option for it, I switch to the Japanese Voices with English Subtitles... US voice acting has just gotten so awful it's not even worth playing a lot of games anymore.

 

Smash Brothers Brawl had it's Subspace Mode; I'm not going to get into a troll-war over why it was good or bad (that's not the debate), but hopefully most of you would agree that the Subspace mode was the Story mode. And it was pretty plot-driven. However, did you ever hear one word out of any of the fighters? There were only the yells of pain as you smacked your enemies across the stage and back.

 

Whereas games like Other M (don't get me wrong here, Other M is one of my favorites) have a story-driven plot, and yet is loaded with needless voice acting. I get enough Barbie Voices from my sister's Nutcracker movie, thank you. Sure it would have required a bit of re-writing and tons of scene-cutting), but the story could have flowed fairly well without any dialog at all.

The original Metroid did it just fine.

The original Zelda (other than the old Man)

The original Mario did it just fine (and most Mario Games now don't require much reading or have much voice-acting either)

And tons of the older games that didn't have the technology for voice-acting

 

 

Some games just couldn't run without dialog, so plain-text could work. Although sometimes I just don't feel like reading.

My favorite game to-date is Majora's Mask. No voice acting. Just noises from people. And yet Majora's Mask has my favorite storyline of any game (I like "darker" plots)

 

 

 

My opinion is that we should do away with voice acting, or at least limit it to some extent. Or at least make the English voice acting in some of these games bearable... Although this is the internet, and chances are, my opinion is "wrong."

 

What are your thoughts on voice acting in video games?

[Lady Rarity Pony 4,894]

Any human character that doesn't talk and doesn't have a story related excuse for it is a bad character in my eyes.

I don't completely understand your question though...

[Tom The Diamond 1,831]

Voice Acting only works for some games. Most are better off without.

 

Fallout, Spongebob BfBB, and Spyro (Classic) are examples of good Voice Acting.

 

Zelda CD-i and Hotel Mario is an example of bad Voice Acting.

 

When voice acting is good, it adds to the game. When voice acting is bad, it detracts from the game. And there isn't any balance in voice acting. Its pretty much really good or really bad. But usually for RPGs, games that have walls of text, its better without, so you you can read/ignore the text at your own pace.

Edited November 27, 2011 by Tom the Rock

[Spock 91]

I voted text and voice, then changed my mine and said text and made them equal! lol!

[1Fluttershy 411]

I voted "Plain text, and maybe some epic background music".

[Colon Leftbracket 971]

hmm... Voice Acting is a bit of a toss up whether I liked it or not.

Nintendo games really shouldn't have voices in them. I watched my friend play Other M and I completely lost respect for Samus

Also Sonic shouldn't talk ever again.... that goes even more so for Tails!

 

As for other non-classic games they should have (good) voice acting. I also like subtitles as well.

 

Though one issue I have with voice acting is when you're playing an RPG and they have you name your character. This screws up the rest of the game since the character's dialogue must avoid calling me "Shit Bagel"! I know that this is an old practice from old text RPGs of the days of yore, but it just doesn't work anymore.

 

Though I miss adventures like Earthbound where everyone wants to feed me my favorite meal... which quickly became morbid when my mom wanted to feed me "children"! Or in Mother 3 when I found a garden that grew "Orphans"!

[Fghik 360]

Also Sonic shouldn't talk ever again.... that goes even more so for Tails!

 

...

 

Though I miss adventures like Earthbound where everyone wants to feed me my favorite meal... which quickly became morbid when my mom wanted to feed me "children"! Or in Mother 3 when I found a garden that grew "Orphans"!

 

Agreed.

Although....If they brought back Jaleel White... I could imagine me calling myself a Sonic Fan again.

 

 

 

I hope you know I burst out laughing when you mentioned the children and orphans...

Good thing I have my own room....

Edited November 27, 2011 by Fghik

[why 20]

If you can skip the voices and Text, That will be nice.

[Lady Rarity Pony 4,894]

Ignore my first reply, I think I misunderstood the question O.o

[FirestormCAN 246]

Here's an example of how NOT to do voices in games:

 

 

...yeah. Voices work for some games, but aren't all that necessary. If you want to have spoken dialogue, that's fine. Just make sure you have a voice director who actually knows what they're doing with the talent at hand.

[Magic Note 2,777]

Voice acting can be a good or bad thing for any game, really. I prefer the text and voice acting myself, 'cause it can be hard to hear what they're saying sometimes.

 

If anyone wants to hear really bad voice acting, listen to Mega Man 8's English voice acting, or this "gem" from Mega Man X4. Don't say that I warned you but here's this infamous scene:

 

[Celli 4,349]

I think it really depends on the game. Like The Legend of Zelda. I think if they got some good VAs, it would make the game more interesting with the story. I mean, look at games like Fallout, The Elder scrolls,and Half-Life. I would keep Link silent,  though, and react to people by choosing dialogue.

[Shadowking58 1,137]

Well, there is a game with horrible voice acting that I would prefer not to hear.

[Gernia 692]

Whether or not there's voice acting, I prefer to have text to read at the bottom. I don't want to feel lost.

 

I also feel that those in 3D should have some, but those in 2D probably don't need them all that much.

[Jaref 344]

So many games these days try to be cinematic, voice acting is kind of a nessecity and it's not going anywhere. Good voice acting can add so much to the characters, like Metal Gear Solid for example. And not having to read through text boxes makes for much more fluid gameplay. On the other hand, professional voice acting cost a lot of money. There's a reason why so many games have awful voice acting. It severly limits the size of modern day RPG's. Look at how crippled FF13 is in terms of characters compared to older FF's, it's quite sad. Skyrim and Oblivion cheats by using the same voice actors and lines for all of their NPC's, that's one way of doing it, but it shows

 

I like the way Ni No Kuni did it. Great voice acted cutscenes, text-box gameplay. It's a fair balance, and you get a very rich expansive world filled with NPC's you can interact with

 

Nintendo need to bite the bullet though and add voice acting to Legend of Zelda. I'm perfectly fine with mute protagonists, but characters talking in beeps and boops and grunts lost its charm after Wind Waker

Edited October 10, 2014 by Jaref

[Megas 28,108]

Some games work with voice acting, some don't.

 

For every Metal Gear Solid you get two or 3 Megaman X7s